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So, The Bucs Don’t Adjust?

Much has been made of the Bucs’ second half adjustments, or lack thereof. Naysayers say this is the reason Bucs commander Greg Schiano should not return for the 2014 season.

Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune started researching and found that, indeed, Schiano’s charges have made the ever-popular halftime adjustments.

Gone was the original plan to run Rainey mostly out of single-back sets, and in its place was a new plan that called for Rainey to run almost exclusively between the tackles and behind fullback Erik Lorig.

The difference was dramatic.

During the Bucs’ first two possessions of the second half, Rainey carried the ball eight times for 46 yards (5.75 per carry). An interception and a missed field goal attempt negated the impact, though, and forced an even greater adjustment.

Now is this just an anecdote, an accident or a trend? The ugly numbers of the scoreboard suggest perhaps an accident, documented Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times.

@gregauman: Take away the two games with Atlanta and Bucs have been outscored 53-3 in third quarter of other 10 games this season. Scoreless 3Q 9 times.

That’s pretty damning.

Now Joe will get on his soap box about “halftime adjustments.” Joe sees fans use this all the time. Schiano has been asked about this often and, politely, he tries to explain those are overblown, largely because there is so little time at halftime to adjust.

Let Joe be more direct: Teams that wait until an overblown timeout (halftime) to make necessary changes are begging to get run out of the stadium. Not unlike baseball where adjustments are made virtually each pitch, adjustments are made from series to series and sometimes in the middle of a possession.

The fact the score in the third quarter for the Bucs is so lopsided, not in the Bucs favor, suggests that whatever adjustments are being made in the second quarter or third quarter aren’t getting the job done.

13 Responses to “So, The Bucs Don’t Adjust?”

Ok i can bite on the fact that adjustments arent just a half time thing, it is a play to play thing. The simple fact is that the original game plans and subsequence adjustments during the game are terrible.

Also that half hoir during half time is more than enough time for the coordinators and position coaches to sit fheir players down and fix break downs on defenses and assignments. Also give coordinators a chance to tweak a previously practiced play to fit what the defense is showing. Half of an hour is a lot of time for coordinators to to sit back and have the time to gather their thoughts and come up something to defend or exploit what the other team is showing.

So wait….the fans should know that the changes are there just no progress with the changes. Is this of lack of planning? Out Coached/Skilled (in this case Rainey getting stuffed) ? Joe you kinda closed out a door in my mind, but opened one that looks as bad as no second half adjustments, actually worse if anything. I understand being down by XX points we need to throw the ball more to catch up, but the fact against the panthers their defense dominated all game, we almost had a shot for a TD and that was due to a turn over. Our offense plan lacked or didn’t produce.

We’ve seen throughout the history of the nfl that halftime adjustments can work. I also think whenever there is a loss, the lack of adjustments (or supposed) is blamed. It is the warcry of the ignorant much of the time.

Trubuc, 30 minutes would be far too much of a break…except during the superbowl I guess.

@joe – there’s merit to what you say. i think if people took a closer look the bucs generally go in the tank just after the midway point of the second quarter, especially on offense. based on that, i’d say that the bucs begin to struggle after the other team has made its adjustments over the first 5 or 6 possessions. in other words, it’s not a lack of halftime adjustments, it’s just being out-adjusted in general. aside from the seriously depleted falcons, our other 2 wins have come vs teams whose coaching staffs i would probably put in the bottom 3rd of the NFL.

If a coach is going to go against the NFL grain, ie, charge the victory formation, skip halftime adjustments, he needs to have a winning record to prove what he’s doing is working. Until then, I’m not buying these foolhardy tactics!
L

Whether or not schiano is making halftime adjustments only matters if what were doing works. To say he’s been making adjustments all season is even more embarrassing considering how badly we’ve been outscored. We will only be as good as the man leading us. His record says schiano isn’t good leader even when given a roster full of probowl players

Ok then, 14 minutes. Still enough time to get some communication going. Also angood chance to get the tam together and motivate them a little. Second half of games have been terrible for the bucs. Schiano needs to turn half time from potty break time to team motivation time or something. Whatever they do now isnt working.